The next morning, Cora was headed to the witch house with the guys. "You didn't say anything to Elena about the coffins, right?" Stefan asked them.
"No, I said I wouldn't."
"I didn't, either. She thinks I'm at glee club." Cora said. Damon gave her a look. "It was all I could come up with at the moment. I'm meeting her there later."
"Just be careful. The fewer people that know about this, the better." Just then, Cora heard something and motioned for them to be quiet. Damon nodded. He had heard it, too. They carefully approached the witch house.
Bonnie was coming out. Damon went toward the doorway, while Cora hid nearby. Suddenly, a hybrid rushed out of the house. Damon killed him before he could do anything.
"These hybrids are bringing the neighborhood down."
"That was a little too close for comfort." Cora said. "We're going to have to be more careful about these meetings, especially since Klaus has them everywhere in town."
"You two should go. We'll take care of this." Stefan told the girls.
"Okay."
They'd made it to school late that morning. "Wait, glee club? Seriously?"
"I was kind of in a hurry." Cora pointed out. "I didn't want her to get suspicious. And once I was in the chorus of The Sound of Music."
They found Elena decorating Caroline's locker. That's when Cora remembered it was Caroline's birthday. "Hey, sorry I'm late, I… I got held up."
"It's okay. I just got here too." Elena told her. "Could you pass me the balloons? Thanks. Why are you running late?"
"I was working on some new spells." Bonnie told her. "You?"
"Working with Alaric." Elena turned to Cora. "How was practice?"
"A disaster. I don't even know why I got involved with them." Cora lied.
"So, I have something I need to tell you, and you're not gonna like it." Elena said, turning to Bonnie.
"What happened?"
"Jeremy is gonna be leaving town for a while. He will stay with old family friends in Denver, until this thing with Klaus blows over."
"Jeremy wouldn't just leave you deal with Klaus on your own." Bonnie pointed out.
"I know, I asked Damon to compel him."
"You what?" Bonnie asked.
"I know, Bonnie. But it's not safe here for him anymore." Elena said.
"Klaus tried to kill him yesterday." Cora explained. "If we don't get him out of here, he'll try to do it again." Bonnie was still in shock, but she could see that she understood.
"Leaving will give him a better life. The only reason I'm telling you is because I know that you two haven't really walked out on your stuff. " Elena said. "And I thought maybe you'd wanna say goodbye."
"Thanks for telling me." Bonnie said. She walked away. Cora caught up to her, though.
"Hey. I know this is hard." Cora told her. "But at least if he leave, he'll still be alive."
"How would you know how I feel, Cora? You've only been here for a month." Bonnie pointed out.
"That doesn't mean I'm not going to miss him, either." Cora said, feeling slightly angry at her. "He's one of the closest friends I have in this town. And with all that's happened, he deserves to have a normal life. And to be honest, I don't blame him. I hate everything about this mess. I'd give up my powers if I could make everything normal again." She walked off. She hadn't felt this angry in years.
She found herself in a part of campus she didn't recognize. It was outside, but she'd been so busy lately, she hadn't been paying attention to the school maps. She sat down on a bench. "You okay?" She looked up and saw Matt.
"Not really." He sat down next to her. "I kind of blew up at Bonnie over everything that's happened. I know it's not her fault, but still…"
"This whole Klaus thing has everyone stressed out." Matt said. "Even I'm worried about them."
"He threatened Jeremy." Cora told him. "We decided to get him out of town for a while. Do you think we're making a mistake?"
"No, I don't." Matt said. "The farther he is away from this, the better. I don't want anything happening to him, either. Elena made the right call."
Cora smiled. At least someone else understood how important this was. "Anyway," Matt continued. "Are you coming to Care's surprise party?"
"I wouldn't miss it." Cora told him.
That afternoon, she was hiding with Matt, Elena, and Bonnie. She was still a little angry with the witch, but she wasn't going to let it ruin her time with the others. She peeked out the window and saw Caroline heading up the steps.
"She's coming."
"Okay, places, guys." Matt said. They remained in hiding until Caroline entered the room.
"Happy birthday!"
"What are you guys doing here?" Caroline asked.
"Well you blew of school and missed our work of birthday art, so..." Elena explained.
"Change your clothes, we are going to the falls." Bonnie said. "S'mores, camp fire."
"Cake, like when we were little."
"Except for the tequila!"
"Thanks, guys. Really, but, I just no feeling my birthday this year." Caroline told them.
"I'm sorry, what? You already claimed your birthday as everyone's favorite day of the year." Bonnie pointed out. Cora raised an eyebrow.
"We were eight when she said it." Elena explained to her.
"And now, it's just reminded that technically, I'm dead." Caroline said. "Look, I'm not even seventeen. And the only point to seventeen is to get to eighteen." She sighed. "It's a failure year, I'm stuck in a failure year."
"You're not stuck Caroline." Elena said.
"Yeah, I am, but it's okay. It's all good, I will be fine. But I just need some time to get used to it."
"I know what you're going through. The first few years of being a vampire is tough." Cora told her. "It gets easier."
"Do you even remember your birthday?" Caroline asked.
"Of course. It's March fifteenth." Cora told her.
"I think I have another idea." Elena said.
A few hours later, the group entered a tomb. Cora shivered. She hated cemeteries and anything else that reminded her of death. It always creeped her out.
"Here it is."
"This is creepy, even for us." Bonnie said.
"For once, I agree with you." Cora said.
"Caroline was right. Technically, she is dead." Elena pointed out. She turned to Care. "Sorry. But you don't need a birthday, you need a funeral. You need to say goodbye to your old life so then you can move on with your new one." Cora smiled. Elena was really good at coming up with creative solutions to small problems.
"Okay, here lies Caroline Forbes." Caroline said.
"Cheerleader, Miss Mystic Falls, third grade hopscotch champion." Elena said.
"Friend, daughter, perfectionist." Bonnie chimed in.
"Mean girl, sometimes, no offense." Matt added.
"Ah, none taken." Everyone laughed.
"She was 17, and she had a really good life. So rest in peace, so that she can move forward." Elena said. "That's what you really need. What we all really need." Cora nodded.
"Amen, or cheers or whatever. Bonnie?" Bonnie lit the candles with her powers.
"I'm never going to get used to that." Cora said.
"You will, eventually." Caroline told her.
"Okay, make a wish." Elena told Caroline.
A few hours later, Cora felt like she was the only sober one left there. Granted, she was never big on drinking, anyway. "Caroline, what are you doing?" Elena asked.
"What? Nothing."
"Okay, you're a bad sober liar, and even worse drunk liar." She pointed out.
"I might have texted Tyler." Caroline admitted.
"Caroline..."
"What? I'm frail." Caroline said defensively.
"Look, I want to believe Tyler's a good guy here." Cora told her. "But maybe you should be careful around him."
"Give her a break, you two. You can't control what everyone does all the time." Bonnie said.
"Wow." Elena said.
"Sorry, I know it's Caroline birthday, funeral or whatever but, I just feel it's really wrong to compel Jeremy to leave town." Bonnie told them.
"I'm doing it to protect him, Bonnie." Elena pointed out. "I want to give him a chance to have a quiet normal life."
"He should be able to choose how he wants to live it, you're taking his choices away."
"Bonnie, you can't tell him."
"Why? Are you gonna compel me not to?"
"Don't tempt me." Cora said.
"You know, you guys are ruining a perfect funeral." Matt said. Everyone looked at him.
"I'm sorry. I'll just go sleep it off or something. Happy birthday." She left. Cora sighed. She had hoped Bonnie wasn't one of the judgmental types. She still liked her and all, but it was hard dealing with witches sometimes.
A few minutes later, Tyler showed up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to smash the party."
"So don't." Matt told him.
"No, it's, it's okay." Caroline said.
"Can I talk to you for a sec? It's kind of important." Tyler told her. Caroline got up. She glanced back at Cora, who smiled encouragingly. Then they left the tomb.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked Matt.
"Yeah, I want her to be happy you know. It's what I want for all of you guys, in the middle of this crazy life we gotta stuck in." Matt told them.
"Is that how you see it? That we are stuck? Bonnie is right, you know I had no business messing with Jeremy's head." Elena said. "I just don't know what else to do. He is in danger here. I can't lose anyone else that I love."
"I think you made the right call." Cora told her. "Keeping him alive is better than risking Klaus going after him. If it were Vi, I'd have done the same thing."
"Thanks."
After an hour passed, the group started searching the woods for Caroline. "Great, we've been abandoned." Elena said.
"Calm down, she's gotta be out here somewhere." Cora said.
"I don't trust them, she could get back together with him."
"So what? She's still in love with him." Cora pointed out. "Besides, it's not easy to get over someone you're really into." Matt and Elena shared an uncomfortable glance. "Oh, right. I forgot about the whole ex-thing with you two."
"Caroline!"
"Come on, Caroline!" Elena called. "We don't have anymore drinks! Matt is afraid about the Fell Ghost." Suddenly, Matt fell to the ground. Cora leaned next to him, and that was when she heard something. She turned toward the direction of the forest.
"Matt, get up, come on!" She said.
"What happened?" Cora looked around.
"I don't know, but Elena's gone. And I think I just heard Caroline." She helped Matt up.
"You know where she is?"
"It came from that way." Cora slowly approached the woods. She found Caroline on the ground, in pain. "Over here!" Matt ran over to her.
"What could've done this to her?"
"I don't know." Cora said. "Wait." She closely checked Caroline for injuries. That's when she saw an infected mark on her. "This mark…" Matt leaned down to check.
"She's been bitten." Matt said.
"But that means…"
"I know, but I don't know what else to do." Matt told her. "We've got to get her home, quick." Cora nodded.
They both got the Caroline's house in no time. "Sheriff Forbes!"
"What happened?" She asked them.
"Tyler bit her." Matt said.
"I'm sure he didn't mean to."
"This is not the time, Cora!" He snapped.
"Right, we've got to help her."
"Be careful." Liz told them. "Caroline, honey, can you hear me?"
"I'm sorry, mom."
"She's hallucinating or something, I don't know. No one's picking up the phone." Matt said.
"Okay, we're going to need blood bags, a wet towel, and we've got to keep her calm." Cora told them. Liz nodded, then turned to her daughter.
"It's alright sweet heart."
"Is there any way to save her?" Matt asked Cora once Liz had left the room.
"There's only one thing that can cure a wolf bite. Klaus' blood." Cora said. "And as much as I hate the guy, I don't think we have a choice."
A few hours later, she headed back home. She got to the front door at the same time as Damon. "What a night."
"You're telling me. What happened at that party, anyway?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Cora told him. "What about you? What happened at the charity event?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"This isn't going to get any easier, is it?" Cora sighed.
"Nope."
"Well, at least we're not alone in this one."
The next morning, Cora stopped by the Gilbert's house. "Hey."
"Hey." Elena said. Cora turned to Jeremy.
"Well, guess this is it for now."
"Please tell me you didn't prepare an entire speech." Jeremy said.
"Of course not. I'm not that old-fashioned." They all laughed a little. "Even though I haven't known you long, Jer, I feel like you're part of my family."
"I know what you mean." Jeremy looked at her. "Listen, while I'm gone, try to keep my sister out of trouble. Don't want anything to happen before I get back."
"No problem." Cora said.
"Good, you haven't left yet." Cora turned in surprise. Bonnie had shown up.
"What are you doing here?" Jeremy asked.
"I came to say goodbye." She told him.
A few minutes later, they watched as he left. Cora took Elena's hand. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I think so."
"Come on, let's get inside."
"Hang on, I'd like to talk to you." Bonnie told Cora.
"Go on, I'll just be in here."
"So, what is it this time?" Cora asked.
"I wanted to apologize about yesterday." Bonnie told her. "I was just really angry and hurt about him leaving. I know you were right, but it's still just hard, you know?"
"Hey, I know how hard it is to leave a sibling behind." Cora said. "I lost track of the Salvatores a long time ago, and my sister, my real sister, has been dead a long time. I let go of her the minute she became a true monster." She had tried to kill her back when she was still human.
"Do you ever miss her? The real her, I mean." Bonnie said.
"Sometimes." Cora told her. "But when you live in a world full of supernatural beings, it doesn't make a difference. After all, you don't need to be related by blood to be family." The two of them stood out there for a moment. "You want to come in?"
"Actually, I just stopped by to see Jeremy off." Bonnie said. "I'll see you later."
"Okay." Cora headed inside.